Back on the Jazz
by Heretic angel
Summary: What's the A-team without Hannibal? What are they with someone new?


·  **The A-team : back on the Jazz**

**Summary :** What is the A-team without Hannibal , and what are they with someone new ?   
  
**Disclaimers :** My imagination ... Is it too big !!??!!??!!??   
Anyway , the A-team are not mine but are owned by Cannell (and on and on like that) .  
BUT !!!! : Kayren Smith is mine . And I do mean mine .   
If you like to use her in any further stories ; I'd be pleased .   
  
**Legend :** * = written by one of the A-team members  
" " = spoken dialogue  
' ' = thoughts of the A-team members  
  
**The A-team : Back on the Jazz **  
  
Prologue   
  
19 June 2001 , personal diary of Templeton 'Face' Peck

_* The A-team legends ? C'mon , only when pigs can fly !  
It's been too long now , I don't want to realize how long , since we've got together for the last time .   
The A-team pals forever ? Don't tell me stories. We all know better .  
  
Maybe it's the best thing we could do . Maybe it isn't .   
  
God , I hate bad news . I really do .   
  
BA , Murdock and me received the news that Hannibal is dead . It's been two days , but a part of me still feels numb . We all knew this day was going to arrive . But not so goddamn soon !   
  
I never understood it , but he was happy in that godforsaken town somewhere in Arizona . In some dump with a couple of houses and one store . With old people sitting on the porches while hot weather , with their wives giving them cool drink after cool drink , with suspicious sheriffs and some drunk guy who had to spoil all the fun . Doesn't every small town have them ? But not every town has a Hannibal Smith . God no .  
  
Why did he have to end like that ? Why did he have to be shot in the head by some drunk teenagers , who didn't realize what they were doing , and just in a blur decided to rob his store ?   
  
You know , this is absolutely not how I thought things would go . But , there were so many things not going according to plan ; me going to the hell ; POW camp ; us being outlaws , hunted by Decker , Stockwell ...  
  
What was I hoping for ? A reunion of the A-team ? Reviving and reliving our deepest and worst nightmares and the endless travels ? Heck , maybe I was .   
  
Normal life is boring . Or at least it is to me . It is finished with the fancy and posh cars , over with the expensive suits and Italian shoes , done with the gold colored caviar and stuff like that . I pretended that I had every right to live like a king , after Vietnam . But you never forget the mud , the great white herons , and the dead . I've seen them afterwards , you know , those herons . But they never gave me the feeling everything would be alright again , like I used to think they would do after that malediction of a war .   
Young and innocent .   
  
Hannibal never looked like he could die . Not after Vietnam , not even after the A-team split up . Why did we split up ? We got our pardons , didn't we ? It was no use to stay together , no use to bore each other to death until our hair grew gray .   
  
Murdock and BA still see each other . Strange , isn't it ? Me , in contrary , hasn't seen one of them in years . A phone call now and then , yes , but that's the _limit_ .  
  
The birth of Murdock's kids , the death of BA's mom ... It was Hannibal who called me the most .   
How is it going ... Fixed up a real old Dodge today , Face ... If you go to Cuba send me some good cigars ...   
  
But there were so many stuff he never mentioned . What he did he do before Vietnam . What he did do before Korea . What he did he do in between the missions with the A-team . Monster movies , yes, but a man can't do that all the time . Maggie Sullivan ? I don't know . God , I wish I could turn back to the good old days , before Vietnam , before every shit happened . But God ain't that faithful .   
  
Peck , say a prayer , I would've said a couple of days ago . Forget all the trouble . Forget the past , forget the nightmares . But I'm already trying so hard . It's not working .Twenty years I've been trying to forget , and twenty years fate has been returning to me like a Frisbee . We're in the dump now . And nobody knows .*   
_**  
  
PART ONE   
  
**" Listen to me , Face ! You can't just run in there and ask her whatever you want to . Heard of tact ? "   
  
A black , muscled man looked up to a man whose face was covered in wrinkles , whose blonde hair was speckled through with stripes of gray , and his worn out and tired attitude made him look much older then he already was . The fancy suits had disappeared from his closet a long time ago , and the cars and women had disappeared as it was magic . Hell , it had been all magic . Too magic . But the magic had gone . Even BA could feel that .   
  
" I do whatever what I want to! And if I want to see that god damned daughter of Hannibal , well , I'll go ! "  
With a look , mixed with anger and desperateness , he glanced at BA for only a second , and then tore his look away , and started to walk to the vette . God , yes , the vette . Memories , no ? There are enough of them . Plenty .   
  
" That answers your question . " , Murdock remarked quickly , lifting his eyebrows as he jumped of the old and weary wooden bench that stood outside , away from the road-house . " I told you so ."  
  
" You shut up , fool ! " , BA shouted angrily as he followed Face back to the vette , and Murdock could see that he had difficulties with holding his temper down . If Face was lucky , he was going to come out of this all right .  
If he wasn't , Murdock guessed that he would be darned lucky to get away with , black eyed . In an act of trying to make sure that BA didn't do anything worse then whatever he thought he'd do , Murdock ran after   
BA , hoping dearly that nothing seemed as bad as things seemed .  
  
But to contrary to everything that Murdock had thought would happen , nothing did . The ride went flawless , no remarks , no fights , no jokes , no games . It was one of the loneliest and most discouraging ride Murdock had ever been part of . And it was all because there was no Hannibal to break that goddamn tenseness between them !   
  
'Whatever we had been ten years ago , it weren't men , let stand alone boys .heroes was a bad definition . ' , Murdock thought dimly as BA drove in the so what seemed like the thousandth dusty , red sandy road they had driven in an hour . It was boring . All you saw were abandoned houses , sheds and factories , lonely bushes and sand . Always sand .   
  
" God , what made Hannibal live in a dump like this ? " Face , who had heard Murdock's soft whispering , looked at his friend , and nodded slowly , smiling way overreacted back to him .   
  
" What the hell do you think I'm doing here in the first place ? " , he answered slowly back , pushing Murdock's borderline of understanding slowly to the limit . But Murdock knew better then let his feelings be overrun by some guy who didn't even realize that he'd gone from first class amigo to a berserk , crazy arsehole .  
  
" I don't know . It seems they cook good porridge here in the South . "

" Shut up ! You crazy fools !", BA shouted from back front , shutting them both up immediately as he took a sharp turn to the right . " Don't wanna hear any fussin' 'bout porridge ! foo's ! "   
  
" Make up a new line , would you ? " , Face muttered bored as he looked out of the window .   
" Wouldn't hurt you ! "  
  
" Don't tell me what to do ! " Face's face grew angry , with a steel hard look in his eyes , and he seemed angrier then Murdock had ever seen in all those years after Vietnam ...   
  
" Well , I should ! You're acting like a little kid ! " , BA threw back angrily , without losing the attention on the road , speeding the vette up .  
  
" Then why have you come with me ? "  
  
' God , that shut him up .' Murdock looked nervously at BA , and next glanced to Face , who was smiling.  
What happened ? What the heck happened ?   
  
  
**PART TWO  
  
**Of course Murdock knew very well that it was all about Hannibal . Without Hannibal there was little that held them together . And there was just as much that should hold them apart . But somehow it didn't . They clang on to each other , looking for support , but found none . They were idle , bit by bit . Face was right , his remark justified . And that was what made BA shut up . That was what made them all shut up , in fact . The truth . And now here they were , in the middle of nowhere in Arizona , looking for a truth that could be right , or   
false . That was it , what was bugging Face , maybe .   
  
Murdock looked out the window again , seated on what used to be Hannibal's spot , while Face was sleeping out on the back and the same monotone landscape was passing by , over and over again .   
  
" Face is right , you know ... But I got my pride . After all those years I won't accept an insult on me ! " , BA muttered softly to Murdock as he pulled back gas ." But somehow I also feel that Hannibal's daughter should be left alone . Face is going to change all that , the fool ! "  
  
Murdock didn't answer , but felt like he was torn apart between rage and sadness . He winced as he looked straight before him .   
  
  
PART TWO COMING UP SOON


End file.
